In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Peter Bryant
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>As an Easter greeting to the Mantovani, I present an extract from the
>"Christiad" ("Virgilii evangelisantis Christiados libri XIII. In quibus
>omnia qu de Domino nostro Iesu Christo in Utroque Testamento, vel dicta
>vel prdicta sunt, altisona Divina Maronis tuba suavissime
>decantantur"London 1638) of Alexander Ross (1591-1654). This poem of
>11,000 hexameters is a cento drawn from Virgil's works.
This very welcome Easter message reminded me of another _Christias_,
that by Girolamo/Hieronymus Vida, which like the _Iliad_ and the
_Aeneid_ begins with a seven-line sentence.
Qui mare, qui terras, qui caelum numine comples
Spiritus alme, tuo liceat mihi munere regem
bis genitum canere, e superi qui sede parentis
Virginis intactae grauidam descendit in aluum,
mortalesque auras hausit puer, ut genus ultum
humanum eriperet tenebris et carcere iniquo
morte sua, manesque pios inferret Olympo.
Of course seven lines in a proem were never compulsory: the _Odyssey_
has ten, as has Hesiod's _Works and Days_, his _Theogony_ a long rolling
paragraph; Apollonius Rhodius four, and so on. In Latin,
we don't know about Ennius; Lucretius has a long rolling
paragraph, and likewise Statius in the _Thebaid_, Silius
Italicus, and Corippus in the _Iohannis_; Ovid has four in the
_Metamorphoses_, as has Valerius Flaccus in imitation of
Apollonius.
Vergil of course begins with seven lines followed by four;
seven was the number adopted by the anti-Vergil Lucan in the
_Bellum Ciuile_:
Bella per Emathios plus quam ciuilia campos
iusque datum sceleri canimus, populumque potentem
in sua uictrici conuersum uiscera dextra
cognatasque acies, et rupto foedere regni
certatum totis concussi uiribus orbis
in commune nefas, infestique obuis signis
signa, pares squilas et pila minantia pilis.
and also by Statius for the first sentence of the _Achilleid_
Magnanimum Aeaciden formidatamque Tonanti
progeniem et patrio uetitam succedere caelo,
diua, refer. quamquam acta uiri multa inclita cantu
Maeonio, sed plura uacant; nos ire per omnem
(sic amor est) heroa uelis Scyroque latentem
Dulichia proferre tuba nec in Hectore tracto
sistere, sed tota iuuenem deducere Troia.
There follows an address to Phoebus, asking for success in his
second epic to match his first, and another to Domitian.
Walter of Cha^tillon begins his _Alexandreis_ with an 11-line
proem, but with no special break after l. 7:
Gesta ducis Macetum totum digesta per orbem,
quam longe dispersit opes, quo milite Porum
viceret et Darium, quo principe Grecia uictrix
risit et a Persis rediere tributa Chorintum,
Musa refer, qui si senio non fractus inermi
pollice fatorum nostros uixisset in annos,
Cesareos nunquam loqueretur fama tryumphos
totaque Romuleae squaleret gloria gentis;
preradiaret enim uenti fulgore caminus
igniculos, solisque sui palleret in ortu
Lucifer, et tardi languerent plaustra Boete.
Joseph of Exeter doesn't conform, using a first sentence of five
lines in his _Ylias Datetis Phrygii_, also known as _De bello
Troiano_.
In the field of vernacular epic, some languages are disqualified
by the need to rhyme in couplets; but Milton, having begun
_Paradise Lost_ with a 26-line paragraph, like Statius uses the
seven-line form for his second and shorter epic, _Paeadise
Regain'd_:
I who erewhile the happy Garden sung
By one mans disobedience lost, now sing
Recoverd Paradise to all mankind,
By one mans firm obedience fully tri'd
Through all temptation, and the _Tempter_ foild
In all his wiles, defeated and repulst,
And _Eden_ rais'd in the waste Wilderness.
(Observe the echo of _Ille ego_!) There follows an invocation to
the Holy Spirit in ll. 8-16.
Klopstock's _Messias_ is closer to the _Iliad_:
Sing, unsterbliche Seele, der su"ndigen Menschen Erlo"sung,
Die der Messias auf Erden in seiner Menschheit vollendet
Und durch die er Adams Geschlecht zu der Liebe der Gottheit
Leidend, geto"tet und verherrlichet, wieder erlo"st hat! -
Also geschah des Ewigen Wille. Vergebens erhub sich
Satan gegen den go"ttlichen Sohn; umsonst stand Juda
Gegen ihn auf; er tat's und vollbrachte die grosse Verso"hnung.
Sing, immortal soul, sinful men's redemption, which the Messiah
accomplished on earth in His humanity and through which,
suffering, slain, and glorified, He redeemed Adam's race back to
the love of the Godhead. Thus the will of the Everlasting came to
pass. In vain did Satan rise up against the divine Son;
fruitlessly did Judas rebel against him: He did it, and achieved
the great atonement.
Can anyone add to this list of seven-line beginnings from
medieval or modern epic? (I interpret this category as the ancients did,
to include didactic.)
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Leofranc Holford-Strevens
67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone
Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter?
OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/267865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work)
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